


Where the Heart Is

by tearoseandhoney



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Community: writerinadrawer, WriterInADrawer 4.04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-02
Updated: 2010-07-02
Packaged: 2017-10-10 08:50:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tearoseandhoney/pseuds/tearoseandhoney
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This story is part of a short-duration writing contest.  Please do not comment on this story, positively or negatively, until this notice is removed.  If you are interested in this contest please visit http://community.livejournal.com/writerinadrawer.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Where the Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of a short-duration writing contest. Please do not comment on this story, positively or negatively, until this notice is removed. If you are interested in this contest please visit http://community.livejournal.com/writerinadrawer.

If you saw the house it wouldn’t look like anything special. Maybe you’d notice that unlike some other Victorian houses in the area it hadn’t been divided into flats. Maybe you’d notice the way that the red paint was peeling away from the door and think it was a shame that someone wasn’t taking better care of the building. But, of course, you wouldn’t ever see the house. A perception filter surrounded it, put there when the building was first acquired by the Torchwood Institute.

 

** _1901_ **

Alice Guppy hadn’t ever been happy with him, as far as Jack could remember, but she’d been even less happy since his unsuccessful attempt at engineering had flooded the Hub.

“It’s only for six weeks,” Emily said as she stopped outside what had once been a house and was now more of a wreck.

“It’s dreadful,” Alice replied, stepping through the hole where the door should have gone.

“Come on, it just needs a woman’s touch,” Jack said, grinning.

Emily almost smiled. “Don’t we all, Harkness,” she said before turning away to inspect the rest of the building.

Alice glared but Jack noticed, the next time he was summoned there by Emily, that a vase full of bright yellow roses had appeared in the reception room.

 

** _2003_ **

“Great, two months in the Cardiff suburbs. This isn’t what I signed up for, Jack,” Owen said as they pulled up outside the house.

“Then you shouldn’t have pressed that button, should you, Owen?” Jack replied.

“Told you so,” Suzie muttered from the back seat.

“Who has a blue self destruct button? It should be red or something.”

“Rest of the universe thinks red it too camp,” Jack said.

“Yeah, well, you’d know,” muttered Owen.

Jack walked up to the front door, ignoring the bickering behind him. “Home sweet home,” he said, gesturing for Suzie and Owen to enter.  Owen stomped past, Suzie trailing behind him. She looked even less happy than Owen.

“Hey, it’s not that bad.”

“I grew up in a house like this,” was all she said in reply and Jack didn’t push.

“You know there’s still a load of Rift junk in the SUV. Owen managed to detonate the Xai sphere before we could unload it all. Two months, essential missions only, I’m sure you can find something to keep you occupied.”

She still had that pinched, unhappy look on her face as she caught the car keys but Jack thought, as she walked away, that some of the tension had left her shoulders. 

 

** _2010_ **

He thought about burning the house, offering it as a tribute to the dead. He thought about sending Gwen the key and the address, offering it as a tribute to the living. In the end he did neither. Instead, he removeed the perception filter. Let the house fend for itself once more, just as it had before Torchwood. It was a skill they were all going to have to relearn. 

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of a short-duration writing contest. Please do not comment on this story, positively or negatively, until this notice is removed. If you are interested in this contest please visit http://community.livejournal.com/writerinadrawer.


End file.
